Shashi Tharoor: Nehru: A BiographyAs a young Indian child growing up in America, I heard stories about India's independence movement from my parents. I was told about Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. I had trouble believing that a single individual could have so much impact on the world. After reading, Shashi Tharoor's book, I've changed my mind.
Tharoor's analysis of the intertwining between an individual's biography and the birth of a nation is masterful. The book stays close to its subject, Nehru, but then ventures to link his biography to many of the Indian institutions we now take for granted, including: secularism, democracy, non-alignment, and the country's prowess in science and math. This is a highly readable book and I strongly recommend it to any reader interested in learning about India, its culture, and its first leader.

Mary Douglas: How Institutions ThinkThis book will re-wire your mind. If you ever believed that what we take for reality is mostly a projected societal consensus rather than objective fact, read this book. In addition to being a first-class theorist who can identify critical mechanisms for the social construction of reality, she is fantastic writer. I couldn't sleep for days after reading this book.

October 07, 2007

There are two films about my favorite band about to be released. 'Control' and 'Joy Division' are a biopic and documentary, respectively about Ian Curtis, the brooding baritone of Joy Division, the quintessential post-punk band from the Manchester music scene in the late 1970s. For those who don't know, Joy Division is the predecessor band to New Order. The band dissolved shortly after the suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis. So far, no release date for either film has been announced.